Combined effect of injection timing and injection angle on mixture formation and combustion process in a direct injection (DI) natural gas rotary engine

The application of direct injection (DI) technology is considered as a key solution to the problems of combustion efficiency and emissions on the rotary engine. This work aimed to numerically study the combined effect of injection timing (IT) and injection angle (IA) on mixture formation and combustion process in the 3D flow field of a DI natural gas rotary engine. On the basis of the 3D dynamic simulation model which was established in our previous work [29, 30], some critical information was obtained which was difficult to acquire through experiment. Simulation results showed that to satisfy the ideal fuel distribution for high combustion rate, a small IA should be used when the IT was at the early stages of intake stroke, and a big IA should be used when the IT was at the early stages of compression stroke. However, when the IT was at the middle and later stages of intake stroke, the IA which could satisfy the ideal fuel distribution, was difficult to determine with the changed IT in the middle and later stage of intake stroke. For the above reason, the middle and late stage of intake stroke was not recommended as injection timing in engineering application.